AT&T Copies Verizon iPhone’s Tethering, Hot-Spot Plans

Just a day before Verizon is about to take pre-orders for the iPhone, AT&T has announced revised tethering costs for the iPhone and plans to support mobile hot-spotting.

It’s beyond the realm of coincidence that the Verizon iPhone, due for release Feb. 10, currently offers a more generous tethering plan for the iPhone than AT&T as well as an exclusive wireless hot-spot feature.

AT&T on Wednesday changed its tethering plan to be a bit more budget-friendly. Currently AT&T customers must pay $20 per month to use tethering, and this plan does not include additional data. That means if you have a 2-GB data plan, using tethering counts toward that 2 GB. However, the newly revised policy adds 2 extra gigs for the tethering plan at no additional price, meaning your tethering plan will no longer eat into your data plan usage.

“Customers will incur the same $20 monthly fee they’re accustomed to paying, only now they’ll receive an extra 2 GB of data each month that can be used among all devices,” AT&T said in a statement.

AT&T also announced plans to launch mobile hot-spotting support. Currently AT&T only supports tethering, which shares a smartphone’s internet connection with one device. Hot-spotting allows you to share the connection with multiple devices over a wireless network.

The new tethering plan and AT&T hot-spotting will launch with the release of the HTC Inspire 4G smartphone on Feb. 13, according to AT&T. The initial cost for hot-spotting on the HTC Inspire 4G, bundled with a data plan, will be $45 per month for 4 GB of data.

AT&T has not announced official details about hot-spotting on the iPhone, but a spokesman said the company is working with Apple to support it.

“For hot spot, we are working with Apple to bring it to iPhone,” an AT&T spokesman told Wired.com.

For comparison, Verizon offers hot-spotting + tethering with two extra gigs for $20 per month for the iPhone. AT&T’s policy changes would bring it closer in line with Verizon’s pricing.